Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Wednesday of the Thirty-Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the General Epistle of Saint Iakovos [§ 55]. Brethren:

3 ¹¹A fountain doth not gush forth the sweet and the bitter out of the same opening, doth it? ¹²My brethren, a fig tree is not able to produce olives, is it, or a vine, figs? Thus not even one fountain is able to produce salt and fresh water.

¹³Who is wise and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show forth out of a good manner of life his works in meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if ye have bitter jealousy and intriguing in your hearts, cease boasting and lying against the truth. ¹⁵This is not the wisdom which descendeth from above, but is earthly, material-minded, demoniacal. ¹⁶For where jealousy and intriguing are, there is confusion and every bad thing. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above indeed is first pure, then peaceable, equitable, easily entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, impartial and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

4 ¹From what place come wars and fights among you? They are from this place, from your desires after pleasure which war in your members, are they not? ²Ye desire and have not. Ye murder and are jealous and are not able to attain. Ye fight and war, but ye have not, because ye ask not for yourselves. ³Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask wrongly for yourselves, that ye might consume it in your desires for pleasure. ⁴O adulterers and adulteresses! Ye know, do ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is rendered an enemy of God. ⁵Or think ye that the Scripture saith emptily, “The spirit that dwelleth in us desireth to envy”? ⁶But He giveth greater grace. Wherefore it saith, “God setteth Himself against the proud, but giveth grace to the humble [cf. Prov. 3:34].”

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 29]. At that time:

7 ¹⁴After Jesus called to Himself all the crowd, He was saying to them, “Be ye hearing Me, everyone, and understanding: ¹⁵“There is nothing from outside the man, when it entereth into him, which is able to defile him; but the things which go out from him, those are the things which defile the man. ¹⁶“If anyone hath ears to hear, let him hear.” ¹⁷And when He entered into a house away from the crowd, His disciples began asking Him about the parable. ¹⁸And He saith to them, “Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive that everything that entereth from the outside into the man is not able to defile him? ¹⁹“Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the privy”; this He said making all the foods clean. ²⁰And He was saying, “That which goeth forth out of the man, that defileth the man. ²¹“For from within, out of the heart of men, go forth evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ²²“thefts, covetings, wickednesses, guile, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, folly; ²³“all these evils from within go forth and defile the man.”

²⁴And from that place He arose and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon.

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

13. The commemoration of the Afterfeast of Theophany, and the holy Martyrs Hermylos and Stratonikos at Belgrade.

On account of the Leave-taking of the Feast of Theophany on the 14^th of January, some texts have transferred the other services of that day (St. Nina and the venerable Fathers) to this day.

Epistle

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 199]. Brethren:

1 ³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴Who gave Himself for our sins, so that He might deliver us out of the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to Whom be the glory to the ages of the ages. Amen.

⁶I marvel that ye are so quickly transferring yourselves from the One Who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, ⁷which is not another Gospel, only there are some who trouble you and wish to turn around the Gospel of the Christ. ⁸But even if we, or an angel from out of heaven, should preach a gospel to you besides what Gospel we preached to you, let such a one be anathema. ⁹As we have said before, and now again I say, if anyone preach a gospel to you besides what ye received, let such a one be anathema. ¹⁰For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I were yet trying to please men, I should not be a slave of Christ.

Gospel

For the Martyrs:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 24]. At that time:

6 ¹⁷Jesus stood upon a level place. And there was a crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of the people from all of Judæa and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases— ¹⁸even those who were troubled by unclean spirits; and they were cured. ¹⁹And all the crowd was seeking to touch Him, for power was coming forth from Him and healing all. ²⁰And He lifted up His eyes to His disciples, and began to say:
   “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
   ²¹“Blessed are ye who hunger now, for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are ye who weep now, for ye shall laugh.
   ²²“Blessed are ye whenever men hate you, and whenever they separate you, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man.
   ²³“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in the heavens.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

January 26th – Civil Calendar
January 13th – Church Calendar

1. The Holy Martyrs Hermylos and Stratonikos.

The Emperor Licinius launched a violent persecution against the Christians. St. Hermylos, a Christian and a deacon in one of the churches, was arrested and condemned to death. When he was told that he was being taken out to martyrdom, he rejoiced greatly. The emperor threatened him in vain; Hermylos openly confessed his faith in Christ, and in reply to the emperor’s threats, said: “The Lord is a helper to me, and I will not fear what man shall do to me” (Ps. 117:6). After harsh torture, Hermylos was flung into prison. But the jailer was one Stratonikos, a secret Christian who was filled with whole-hearted compassion for Hermylos’ sufferings. When he, too, appeared before the emperor as a Christian, Licinius ordered that they both be thrown into the Danube. So Hermylos and Stratonikos were bound together in one net and cast into the river. After three days the river threw their bodies onto the bank, and fellow-Christians took them and buried them a little ways outside Belgrade. These glorious martyrs suffered for Christ and entered into glory in the year 315.

2. St. Jacob, Bishop of Nisibis.

In summer in an open field and in winter in a cave, St. Jacob lived as a hermit. On one occasion he went down into the city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, to look into the faith and life of the Christians, and was there elected by the people as their bishop. He took part in the First Ecumenical Council in 325 and defended Orthodoxy against the Arians.

It happened at one time that the pagan Persian army attacked Nisibis. St. Jacob went out onto the ramparts with the banner-icon from the church, himself raising it aloft and walking round the ramparts fearless of the arrows the enemy was aiming at him. Walking thus, the saint prayed to God to save the city and the faithful in it by sending flies and mosquitoes on the Persians, thus driving them away from the city walls. He did not, we see, seek the destruction of the enemy. He sought some sort of catastrophe, some quite small occurrence, that would overcome them and remove them from the vicinity. God heard the prayer of His chosen one and sent a plague of flies and mosquitoes on the Persians, driving them away and saving the city of Nisibis. St. Jacob lived long and with honor, and died peacefully in great old age in the year 350.

3. St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers.

An ardent fighter against Arianism in the West, he suffered greatly for his choice of Orthodoxy. Of his writings on many subjects, the most important are those on the Holy Trinity. He entered into rest in the Lord in the year 367.

4. Our Holy Father Maximus of Kapsokalyvia.

Maximus lived in the fourteenth century following the ascetic life as a monk on the Holy Mountain according to his own particular way. He pretended to be slightly crazed and constantly changed his abode. He built huts of boughs, and then burned them down in rapid succession. He thus earned himself the name ‘of Kapsokalyvia,’ that is, ‘of the burnt huts’. He was regarded as a fool until St. Gregory the Sinaite came to the Holy Mountain and perceived in Maximus a unique ascetic, a wonder-worker with the gift of prayer and an ‘angel in the flesh’. He went to the Lord in the year 1320.

FOR CONSIDERATION

Good deeds in silence are worth far more than good deeds with show, and incomparably more than the cleverest show without good deeds. From St. Nicholas of Myra not one single word has been preserved, but his deeds have remained. Without any show, he came by night on three occasions to the house of a poor man and threw a purse of gold through the window.

An old man in the hermitage at Myra fell ill and longed to eat a little fresh bread (for the bread eaten there by the monks had been dried in the sun and kept for many months). Hearing this, one of the monks went out without a word and traveled a long way to the town, whence he brought fresh bread for the aged sufferer. The elder, learning of the labor of the monk who brought it, would not eat the bread, saying: ‘This is the blood of my brother’ (i.e. my brother has brought it to me with great difficulty). Then the other monks begged the elder to eat it, saying to him that he must not reject the sacrifice of his brother. What ostentation and what words concerning brotherly love could replace this simple and silent act of brotherly love?

Daily Scripture Readings taken from The Orthodox New Testament, translated and published by Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado, copyright © 2000, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Daily Prologue Readings taken from The Prologue of Ochrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, translated by Mother Maria, published by Lazarica Press, Birmingham, England, copyright © 1985, all rights reserved. Edited by Dormition Skete.